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Spinus (genus)

Spinus is a genus which contains the primarily North and South American siskins and goldfinches. The taxonomy still needs to be finalized, as some taxonomists continue to use Carduelis for the genus. The SACC uses the genus Sporagra for the siskins in South America. The Eurasian siskin is the only species from the Old World included in the group.

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Redpoll

This article is about the species of birds in the finch family. For the breed of cattle, see Red Poll.

The redpolls are a group of small passerinebirds in the finch family Fringillidae which have characteristic red markings on their heads. They are placed in the genus Acanthis.[1][2][3] There are several different very closely related[4] forms of redpolls which could be considered as anything from one to five species.[5] Recent studies[6][7] tend to support three species, but this is certainly not definite.

All redpolls are northern breeding woodland species, associated with birch trees. They are small birds, brown or grey-brown above and with a red forehead patch. The adult male's breast is washed in red, but in females and young birds the buff breast and white belly are streaked with brown. The bill is small and yellow. Some birds, particularly young ones, are difficult to assign to species.

They are primarily seed-eaters, and often feed acrobatically like a tit; their diet may include some insects in summer. They have a dry reeling song and a metallic call. They lay four to seven eggs in a nest in a tree or, in the case of the Arctic redpoll, a large bush. They can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with other finches.

The interrelationship of these species is complex and contentious. The crossbills are actually derived from proto-redpoll ancestors quite recently, and they are now placed in the genus Loxia. The greenfinches (which are apparently the most distinct group) and the redpolls, though, have themselves been separated in distinct genera which might be the best way to express both the actual evolutionary relationships and the evolutionarily significant distinctiveness of the crossbills. The molecular data indicate the major lineages split in the Late Miocene (Tortonian, roughly 9-7 million years ago (mya), but it is unable to suggest any one robust arrangement either of the major groups among each other, among the lineages of Carduelis sensu stricto, or indeed among two separate Serinus lineages. [3] As only the mitochondrialcytochrome bsequence has hitherto been studied (Arnaiz-Villena et al., 1998), more data is clearly necessary.

Here, the species of Carduelis sensu lato are listed according to current knowledge. The genus Carduelis sensu stricto could conceivably be split further, and in this case only the European goldfinch and the citril and Corsican finch (newly placed in this genus) would remain in Carduelis. The South American classification of the AOU places South American siskins in the genus Sporagra, [4] but it has not been universally adopted.

On December 18, 2009, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in its authority as custodian of Clement's Checklist, made this statement: "In accord with NACC, here we split the genus Carduelis into four genera: Carduelis (linnets and twites), Spinus (siskins), Acanthis (redpolls), and Chloris (greenfinches). Similar revisions will need to be made with respect to Carpodacus and Serinus, but we defer making those changes until a later date.".[5] This follows a similar change published in the 50th supplement to the AOU Checklist of American Birds, "The subgenera Acanthis and Spinus are elevated to genera, and the genus Chloris is split from the genus Carduelis."[6]